Messages From the Universe Graveyard
Explore a dead MMO and leave messages for other players to find.
- 100+ abandoned and glitchy rooms to discover!
- 20k+ words, mostly in messages
- Social (?) interaction
- 0 NPCs, enemies, combat encounters, skills, items, classes, crafting recipes... (None of that works anymore. Sorry, RPG fans.)
Interactive fiction made for Shufflecomp 2023. Ranked 1st in "game goodness" out of 15 entries, which is pretty neat.
You can spend anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours in this game.
Source code on Github here.
Interactive Fiction Database entry here.
Changelog:
- v1.0.1 - v1.0.3 (Jan 8, 2024): Minor changes to About section and UI. Mobile compatibility.
- v1.0.4 (Jan 15, 2024): Very small bugfix for an issue that occasionally stopped boards from loading if the messages had too many special characters in them.
- v1.1.0 - v1.1.1 (Jan 24, 2024): Post-comp release; improved CSS, added a few new rooms, and reworked message reads/writes. Also, fancier keypad. Also, the code is public on Github now.
- v1.1.2 - v1.1.3 (Feb 4, 2024): Improved About section, slightly changed the format of credit pages, reduced image sizes, minor CSS changes.
- v1.1.4 (Apr 16, 2024): Minor CSS changes and bugfixes, reduced image sizes, reworked menu buttons and added 'return to start' button.
- v1.1.5 (April 18, 2024): Minor CSS changes, reduced image sizes.
- v1.1.6 (April 20, 2024): Minor CSS and writing changes, bugfixes.
- v1.2 (April 23, 2024): See devlog.
- v1.2.1 (July 23, 2024): Mild display tweaks; fix bug that made panels not load under certain conditions. Whoops.
Download
Install instructions
Extract the contents of the zip and run index.html. Will need an internet connection for the intended experience.
Development log
- v1.2 [Final Version]Apr 23, 2024
Comments
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Very interesting game! Strong writing. Could use some mobile optimization (very small) as well as a footer link in the message display to easily x our without having to scroll to the top.
The architecture is really intriguing - are you doing API calls to a server you host, and storing messages in a database? I've been wanting to add external APIs to Twine games. Any advice for the process?
Thank you for the comment! I'll take the design stuff into account for the next time I update the game (might be a while, but should happen eventually).
Architecture-wise, yeah, the game makes API calls to a server hosted on fly.io which communicates with an AWS database. This isn't actually a Twine game, it's iffinity, though that's still similar to Twine's Snowman. I've tried Sugarcube and had a hard time with it, but Snowman should be able to do everything this game does. My specific setup has everything in a bunch of external Typescript files that get compiled into one main Javascript file that's included in the actual build. Checking the source code might be useful—readBoard.ts and writeBoard.ts in script_files are what control the server interaction.
Thanks for the info! I'll see if I can figure it out - I'm only just learning coding through twine, so I struggle with intense code-heavy stuff.
Its so much fun poking around and leaving messages for other people to find!
This game is WONDERFUL! I ended up sitting with it for several hours totally unexpectedly because it drew me in. The concept (of exploring a dead MMO and reading left behind messages) has been done before, but this one actually manages to make it its own.
I like the interactive comments element, and even left a few myself, but I didn't realize how eerie it would become reading through them and not knowing which are from real people and which are in game. Are Mathbrush and Jadetuin real? I want them to be real.
Highly recommended. I did not expect to enjoy exploring a text game so very much.
There's a jadetuin on tumblr so they might be real!
I can hope! I enjoyed reading your comments on all the pages btw. It was like following another saga along with the story of the game.
Thanks, I never knew anyone would care about them!
This was an absolutely fascinating experience. I underestimated what I was going to get when I initially read the premise and ended up spending nearly an entire day exploring through this gem. Even had me making up makeshift maps in Twine because I kept getting my ass lost lmao
The idea of diving into the guts of something long dead, a place where people once thrived and their remnants still linger, is a concept I adore and this knocked the execution out of the park. It's hard to be too frustrated at not getting all the answers or messages when it fits the theme so well, despite how effective the glimpses of deeper story here serve as hooks. The break in of glitches was a great mechanic as well, as a touch of digital decay and a source of wonder - and dread, when held up against the wider lore.
Thanks for sharing!
That's the mood I was going for, so I'm glad to hear you liked it. Knowing people got something out of this makes me happier. Thank you for the kind comment!
for some reason i couldn't get any of the node codes (past the first door) to work :( did i do something wrong? looking at the gifs on this page there's clearly a bunch more stuff to explore
Only one of them works for sure, the rest are purposefully broken! I'll add a message hinting at that, haha.
yep, i was certain i tried every one listed but i must've typed the working one wrong... thanks! gonna update the comment when i'm done looking around all the new rooms
this is actually amazing. IF Yume Nikki with a very distinct tone and a bunch of narrative stuff to find on top of just enjoying the exploration.
i also liked how there are these little moments (usually related to "glitches") that break up the usual way you interact with the game, and that you have to find codes to progress to new areas. maybe it's not much, but it helps make this feel like more than just clicking through text.
thanks!!
Thank you! IF Yume Nikki is high praise. I'm glad you liked the game.